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forensic attention to detail

I asked a friend: “What was your takeaway from the Arabella Lennox-Boyd lecture?” “She works for really rich people.”With a few exceptions, the projects Lennox-Boyd showed were grand estates on huge pieces of property. One such long-term project is Eaton Hall, the seat of the Duke of Westminster, an 85 acre property with herbaceous borders over 296 ft. long and a 150 page maintenance guide for the gardeners penned by Lennox-Boyd.

Childhood memories of the Italian landscape (photo from slide show)

Lennox-Boyd began her lecture with her childhood home, Palazzo Parisi, 60 K north of Rome. Her earliest earliest influences are memories of the Italian landscape: color, abundance, warmth and rhythm.

The audience gasped as the slides rolled by. Pleached lime trees, red, yellow and white rose gardens, grass steps, water rills, even a camellia house… could not turn my head. Awed by Lennox-Boyd’s ability to create incredibly complicated spaces; I preferred two of her contemporary public spaces.

Serpentine Gallery by Zaha Hadid (photo from slide show)

Looking through glass doors toward planting around the Serpentine (photo from slide show)

The design is based on labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France. “This labyrinth has no dead ends. You trust your route through…It’s a mediative space. For patients it’s a private place, a place of contemplation.

Maggie’s Centre

Lennox-Boyd is not just a garden designer. She grows plants and trees from seed and has her own private arboretum. At age 79, she continues to take on major projects that challenge her imagination and creativity. I only hope that in my seventh decade, I will still be gardening, with the same enthusiasm as Arabella Lennox-Boyd.